One of the main things I like about the model is that it’s easy to remember and it’s easy to whiteboard.

Change Anything with Skill

When I whiteboard the 6 Sources of Influence for people, I simply make a 2-column table. The one column is motivation and the other is ability. I then slice the table into 3 rows: personal, social, and structural.

That’s it. That’s all it takes to frame out and analyze your worst problems that you want to change.

The model scales up and down from changing yourself to changing the world. I’ve included an example of using the Six Sources of Influence to lose weight at the end of this post to help show the model in action.

Keep in mind I’m still learning and testing the model, and the best thing is always test things for yourself. You can just use me as a springboard

Six Sources of Influence

Here is a tickler list for thinking about the six sources of influence:

Source 1 – Personal Motivation – whether you want to do it.

Source 2 – Personal Ability – whether you can do it.

Source 3 – Social Motivation – whether other people encourage the right behaviors.

Analyze and Execute

Before you make an action plan, you can analyze the Six Sources of Influence. To do so, you simply walk each source and ask relevant questions. Similarly you can execute against each source. This table summarizes how to analyze and execute against the Six Sources of Influence:

Source

Analyze

Execute

Source 1 – Personal Motivation

Do I enjoy it?

Make the undesirable desirable.

Source 2 – Personal Ability

Am I personally able?

Surpass your limits.

Source 3 – Social Motivation

Do others motivate?

Harness peer pressure.

Source 4 – Social Ability

Do others enable?

Find strength in numbers.

Source 5 – Structural Motivation

Do “things” motivate?

Design rewards and demand accountability.

Source 6 – Structural Ability

Do “things” enable?

Change the environment.

Example – Losing Weight with Six Sources of Influence

Here is a quick example of analyzing losing weight using the Six Sources of Influence.

Source

Analysis

Source 1 – Personal Motivation

Do you want to lose weight? For example, if you don’t really want to lose weight, you’re not really going to try. It can’t just be for other people. It has to be for you.

Source 2 – Personal Ability

Do you have the skills, knowledge and techniques that work for you? Chances are, you may know the patterns that work for you, or at least the patterns that don’t work.

Source 3 – Social Motivation

Do your friends want to go out drinking every night or encourage you to eat a lot at your favorite haunts?

Source 4 – Social Ability

Is there somebody in your social circle that might have the knowledge or resources you need to get an edge?

Source 5 – Structural Motivation

When you go home, are you greeted by a big bowl of candy or a big bowl of fruit? Your environment can motivate you in a good way or a bad way.

Source 6 – Structural Ability

Do you have a way to workout at home? This can give you a big advantage in the long run.

I hope this example helps you see the power of the Six Sources of Influence. You can substitute whatever resistant or persistent problem you want to change. Walking the frame will help you quickly see where you can get your best leverage or where you might be stuck the most. The more you leverage multiple sources the more you set yourself up for success.

Nice thing about this model is it allows you to rank the areas by how difficult they are to change and by how important they may be in determining whether you succeed. In your example, Number 3 can be devastating in so many ways you may discover a complete change in social networks is necessary (or a ‘vacation’ from your friends). I’ve found that discovering that likely failure point is the first step to making it past.

I absolutely love the way you set up your posts. You always put such great and informative stuff into easy-to-navigate structures. It’s great. This post has some really interesting stuff in it. I got a lot out of it so thank you!

Hi JD – I love this model. And using the weight loss example was a great way to show how powerful it is. It really shows that a weak link in any of those parts could make the difference between success and failure.

I think the model will serve you well and I look forward to your results. It is life changing.

@ Cath

I wish I knew this model long ago. I can literally play back past failed attempts at change and see where things went wrong. On the corporate side, just think how many change efforts fail because either the people didn’t want the change or the tools didn’t support it or people didn’t have the skills and support they need, … etc.

@ Craig

I highly recommend the book. It’s a fun read, full of stories, and it’s a comprehensive model. While it’s a simple model to follow, there are a lot of moving parts to master.

Featured Guests

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Guy Kawasaki on the top 10 reasons to self-publish. Guy’s new book, APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur-How to Publish a Book is all about self-publishing and how to control the publishing process to produce high-quality books.

Tim Ferriss’ new book The 4-Hour Chef is now out. I had the pleasure of talking with Tim Ferriss about his new book. The 4-Hour Chef is more than a cookbook — it’s a cookbook for life. As you may know, Tim Ferriss it the best-selling author of The 4-Hour Work Week and The 4-Hour […]

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Marie Forleo on her lessons learned in life. Marie is a best-selling author, speaker, online-entrepreneur, Nike Athlete and Master Trainer, fitness personality, dancer, and choreographer.

Editor’s note: What does somebody who spent a year test-driving principles, tips, theories, and scientific studies on happiness think are the real keys to happiness? That’s what I wanted to know. This is a guest post on lessons learned in happiness by Gretchen Rubin. Gretchen is a best selling author and former lawyer. What’s interesting to me about Gretchen is that she studied happiness by making it a project. During The Happiness Project, Gretchen spent a year test-driving lessons in happiness from Aristotle to Oprah.